Bill’s Podcast

del.icio.us, the hidden value of a smartboard, choosing not to use technology

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 11:43:32 -0400

I found a great podcast today and as I was listening, I heard a teacher talking about how a smartboards might not fit into his curriculum. This raised 2 very interesting issues for me. The interesting value of smartboards, and how technology isn’t always the best choice.
I wrote a reply as a comment, but wanted to elaborate on it here.
I have an observation about smartboards. We have tons of smartboards in our school (23 of them, with another 14 coming soon). I understand it might not work for your particular discipline, but the interesting thing is what happens when you get technology close to your teachers.
We found that having a projector / screen in the room, ready to go, makes using technology so easy, that even our low-tech teachers are using the smartboards. It’s a real lesson in “if you make technology easy to use, and immediately accessible, teachers will use it!”. We are using the 600i series, so a teacher can use it to write notes, then easily save the notes, and upload them to a course management system. But basically, all a teacher needs to do is turn it on, and start writing. Very positive. Because our smartboards have speakers, teachers can plug in their ipods, dvd players, or vcr’s to show videos.
I also really respect your comment about how technology doesn’t fit into your teaching. I know plenty of teachers who have thoughtfully considered using technology and decided it didn’t fit into their curriculum. This wasn’t a fear-based response, it was a result of carefully considering the technology, looking at the whole picture (support, pedagogy, student technology use, and budgetary issues) and then deciding it wasn’t for them. We have a math teacher at our school who likes to use the entire board to write a formula, or work a problem through. She likes her students to see the entire problem, from start to finish across the board-space. This particular boardwork wouldn’t fit on a smartboard, which uses a page-by-page style to display lots of information.
I suggest anyone who hasn’t heard of these folks subscribe to the blog linked above, and their podcast.

Instructional Designer in a day

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:31:56 -0500

I talk about what support means in instructional design, and what a wide-ranging thing it is to support technology in education.

Is it worth it

Sun, 3 Feb 2008 11:31:26 -0500

Is educational technology worth it?
Another interesting conversation has emerged at work. Does the cost of technology equal it’s benefit?
In business, this idea is referred to as ROI (return on investment). We invest X dollars into technology, support, and infrastructure. Does that equal the educational return?
In keeping with my idea of 2 realms in educational technology (blog post series: part 1 , part 2 and part 3) I want to approach the idea of ROI remembering technology serves different roles in education.
Spending - hypothetical high school with ~ 1200 students and 70 teachers  Disclaimer: This is a very rough idea of the yearly costs associated with running a high school technology program. I will demonstrate in another post how quite a bit of money can be saved.
Network Administrator: $50,000  Computer teacher (faculty position): $50,000  Part time technician: $20,000  Programmer (the person who makes the schedule - might be a guidance counselor):$45,000
Bandwidth (T1 or greater) : $12,000
3 labs with 30 computers each: $40,000  3 laser printers - one for each lab: $2000
70 teachers with a computer each: $25,000  1 printer per department (5): $2500
1 laptop cart with 30 computers: $5,000  5 projectors on mobile carts (example) : $5,000
Windows OS licensing: $20,000  Office licensing: $20,000  Server licensing: $10,000  Student information system licensing: $5000  Router / switch licensing: $5000  Anti-virus licensing: $5000  Course management licensing: $5000  Help desk licensing: $1000  wireless licensing: $1000   Office staff desktop computers: $15,000  Office staff printers: $1000
So this equals about $344,000 a year. Wow. Add in additional software costs (which I didn’t include here) and staff development and training, and our fictional high school is spending about $350,000 a year on technology.
Are we getting $350,000 worth of better education? As usual, the answer is: it depends

critiques

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 21:39:29 -0500

I always listen to those people who hold especially negative views about technology and education. From them we find the sharpest insights into our field, and often areas we need to improve upon. Always listen to critique, and always invite dissenting points of view.

Making games

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:38:19 -0500

There is no doubt in my mind making a game is of tremendous educational value. However, time and quality come in as issues to think about.

To be perfectly blunt about it, most games I’ve seen made by students are horrible. the quality, game play, and sprites are bad, and there is no outward evidence the student has done any heavy lifting. If you speak with the teacher or student you will very quickly see how much the student has learned, but judge the final product, and it will be lacking.

My answer to this? Modding. Listen to the podcast for more.

Support

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:56:00 -0500

It’s easy to forget technology needs support, and it’s easy to skimp on support when there are other budgetary demands pulling us. This podcast discusses some interesting ways to think about support in your school.

The water cooler effect

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:41:45 -0500

Teachers talk to each other when they are excited about something. If they are excited about technology, they will share this success with each other. Recalcitrant teachers then might begin a tentative exploration process to try something new - and when they do, a friendly face and real support is waiting for them. I like to call this the water cooler effect.

Keep it simple

Tue, 6 Nov 2007 21:01:40 -0500

If technology is simple, accessible, and well supported, teachers are more likely to use it effectively. What a concept.